Centrifugal gun



V. H; CZEGKA.

CENTRIFUGAL GUN. V APPLlCATION FILED JULY 20. 1920. I 1 ,404,378. Patented Jan. 24, 1922.

3 SHEETSSHEET I- INVENTOR W062 v TORNEYS V. H. CZEGKA.

CENTRIFUGAL GUN.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 20.1920.

1,404,378. Patented Jan. 24,1922. 3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

ATTORNEYS V. H. .CZEGKA.

CENTRIFUGAL GUN.

APPLICATION FlLED JULY 20,1920. 1,404 378.

Y I v mmzvs UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

VICTOR H. GZEGKA, or WASHINGTON, nrs'rmor on COLUMBIA. ASSIGNOR TO AERO TANK MACHINE GUN COMPANY. INC,

A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

CENTRIFUGAL GUN.

Application filed July 20, 1920.

To all whom it may concern Be it .known that I, VIc'ron H. Ozncna, a citizen of the United States, residing at 1305 Belmont Road, lVashington, in the District of Columbia, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Centrifugal Guns, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

My invention relates to guns of the centrifugal type and has among its objects to improve the means for fixing the direction of travel of the bullet, the means for feeding bullets to the impeller, and the arrangement and details of construction of guns of this type, and to provide means ensuring the safety of the operator, and is an improvement on the construction disclosed in U. S. Patent No. 1,332,992.

The novel features of my invention are pointed out with particularity in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, with further objects and advantages, will best be understood by reference to the following description taken in connection with the accompanying drawings in which Fig. 1 is a vertical sectional view taken on the line 11 of Fig. 2, parts being shown in elevation for purposes of better illustration.

Fig. 2 is a plan View of Fig. 1, part of the cover being broken away.

Fig. 3 is a sectional view on the line 3-8 ofFig. 1.

Fig. 1 is a plan view of the feed mechanism of the machine shown in Figs. 1 and 2, the lower edge of the hopper being shown in section.

Fig. 5 is a sectional view on the line 5-5 of Fig. 4.

F 6 is a plan view in inverted position of the timing block or direction determining member and its associated feed cam of the machine shown in Figs. 1 and 2.

Fig. 7 is a. section on the line 77 of Fig. 6.

Fig. 8 is a plan view of a central revolving member or breech block through which the bullets pass on their way to the barrel and with which the member shown in Figs. 6 and 7 co-operates.

9 is a sectional detail view of a mechanism for counting the bullets passing to the barrel taken on the line 9-9 of Fig. 2.

, Fig. 10 is a detail sectional view through the axis of rotation of thebarrel. illustrat ing the positions of the parts immediately Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented J an. 24, 1922.

Serial No. 397,739.

Fig. 14: is a detail sectional view on the line 141-Cl of Fig. 9.

In the drawing 1 is a base having stand-- ards, such as 2 thereon, in which is swiveled a casing 3. The outer face of casing 3 has an arcuate portion having gear teeth, such as a, thereon, meshing with a worm 5, which can be turned by a hand-wheel 6 to adjust the position of the casing for purposes which will presently appear. Journaled within casing 3 is a driving shaft 7 on which is a gear fixed to aspindle 10, shaft 7 being driven by any suitable motor, not shown. The gearing ratio between members 8 and 9 is such as to give the spindle 10 very high speed of rotation during normal operation. Fixed to an extension of the spindle 10 is an impeller or barrel 11 normally operating within a shield 12 and swiveled in the upper portion of the casing 3 and having a removable cover 13. By turning casing 3 the plane of rotation of barrel 11, and hence the elevation of discharge of the barrel and range of bullets thrown thereby, may be changed as desired while the barrel is in operation.

Bullets to be thrown by the impeller 11 are placed in a hopper 14 from which they are fed to the impeller through a flexible tube 15 and suitable breech mechanism hereinafter described.

The means for feeding the "bullets through tube 15 are illustrated in detail in Figs. 4.- and As is best shown in Fig. 5, the hopper 14 is open at the bottom, permitting the bullets, such as 16, to fall upon a screw conveyer or worm 17 by which the bullets are fed into a tube 18 connected to the tube 15. At the lower end of hopper 1 1 on the side nearest the tube 18 I place a spring 19 which has just suiiicient clearance above the worm 1'? to permit one ball at a time to pass 8 meshing with a helical gear 9 beneath the spring, the spring brushing back from the mouth of the tube 18 all exceptthose bullets which are seated in the grooves ofthe worm, thus preventing jamming of the bullets or balls at the outlet of the conveyer. Worm 17 is fixed to a shaft 20 splined to a- :t'riction disc 21. A spring 22 is provided which normally holds the disc 21 against the friction drive wheel 22 which is splined on shaft 23. Shaft 23 has a gear 24 fixed thereon which meshes with a driving gear 25 fixed to the shaft 7, as is indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2. The friction wheel 22 may be moved radially of the disc 21 by means of a yoke 26 shown in Figs. 4 and 5 so as to vary the speed of the conveyer l7 and the rate at which the bullets are supplied to the impeller. The disc 21 may also be withdrawn from contact with the friction wheel 22 by means of yoke 27 operated by spring 33. As a bullet passes underthe cam portion 32 the finger 30 is rocked so as to operate the register 29 by means of suitable linkage. A star wheel 34 is provided which is pivoted on the other side of the passageway for the bullets from finger 30 so as to properly space the bullets to permit the desired action of the cam 32.

From the counting mechanism the bullets pass into a passage 35, best shown in Figs.

10 and 11, which isin alignment with the axis of rotation of the spindle 10 and barrel 11'. Passage 35 is in the timing block, 36, which is normally fixed, but which carries a worm gear 37 at its upper end meshing with the worm 38 shown in Fig. 2, whereby the block 36 may be adjusted on the cover 13. Immediately beneath the block 36 is a rotating breech block 39 fixed to the impeller 11 and having a passageway therethrough, the upper portion 40 of which opens into the passage 35, and which thence extends substantially horizontally and in a radial direction to the outer edge of the block 39 where it is closed by a cylindrical member 41 which is fixed on the block 36. Immediately below the inlet portion 40 of the passage through breech block 39 is an outlet portion 42 which. connects with the portion 40. The inlet portion 40 and outlet'portion 42 are connected, as plainly shown in Figs. 10 and 11. and as a ball or bullet comes into portion 40 from the passage the centrifugal motion immediately throws it to the outer end'of the portion 40 where it is stopped by the shoulder 43 on the inner face of member 41, as indicated by. the upper dotted circle in Fig. 11. Such bullet is then carried around with the breech block, being held in the upper portion 40 of the passage in this block until a point is reached at which the shoulder 43 is cut away, as indicated at 44, in Fig. 7. At this point a cam 45 fixed to a ring 46 carried by block 36 serves to force the ball down into the outlet portion 42 of the passage in block 39. This operation is indicatedby the three dotted circles in Fig. 10. The bullet is now carried around in portion 42 for almost another complete revolution, being held by the cylindrical member 41 until the point is reached where the ball should be released to the barrel.

The lower inner edge of the member 41 has a bevel 47 cut thereon which begins at a point adjacent the position of the ball shown in Fig. 10, and is gradually widened. until the bevel includes the whole lower edge of the member 41, at which point the member 41 is cut away asindicated at 48 to permitv the bullet to escape from the breech block into the barrel, a radial shoulder '49 being formed at this point. The outlet portion 42 of the passage in block 44 is so positioned that the ball which isbeing held therein con tacts with the bevel 47 at a oint above'the center of the ball. This relation of the parts 7 causes the ball to wedge slightly under the bevel 47, thus avoiding a tendency which would otherwise exist for the ball to rebound after striking the lower edge of part 41. A rebounding action, once initiated, will sometimes cause the ball to miss the outlet and be carried around another revolution before delivery to the barrel. The cut awayportion 48 extends. for only a short distance along the free edge of member 41, this member being again curved downwardly to its full axial dimension as shown at 50 (Fig. 7) in order to retain the next ball forced down by cam 45. However, this portion of the member 40 is tapered as shown at 51 (Fig. 6) to prevent possibility of flange 41 interfering with the'motion of the ballin its passage to the barrel. The bevel 47, previously mentioned, also co-operates to this effect by permitting the ball to move outwardly as far as possible prior to its actual release. It will be seen, moreover, that the outlet portion 42 is inclined to the radius, the inclination of the passageway at this point being such as to accelerate the movement of the ballinto the barrel immediately it is released by the to take its place, in the manner previously described, the outwardly moving ball acquires a very considerable velocity when moving freely. For this reason, I cut oif the rear portion 52 of cam so as to form a face 53 which lies tangent to the path of the ball at this portion of its path, so that as few balls as possible will strike cam 45. The direction in which the ball will be thrown by the impeller or barrel 11 will depend upon the position of the shoulder 49 which can be varied as desired by turning the timing block 36 and its attached cylindrical flange 41, by means of the worm 38 and gear 37, previously mentioned. The worm may be turned by any convenient means, such as a hand-wheel 54.

In order to prevent accidents, the barrel 11 revolves Within a shield 12, previously mentioned, the shield being cut away, as in dicated at 55', to permit the escape of bullets. The shield is swiveled in the upper portion of casing 3 and may be turned to present the outlet 55 in any desired directionby operating a pinion 56 which meshes with a gear 57 fixed to the shield. A hand-wheel 58 may be used to operate pinion 56.

In order to prevent damage to the barrel or other mechanism by rebound of a bullet discharged within the shield 12, I provide a groove 59 on the innerrtace of the shield, the shield having a shoulder 60 on its inner face at the mouth of said groove, said shout der forming a sloping surface for receiving a bullet from the barrel and deflecting the same into groove 59- in a line substantially at right angles to the plane of rotation of the barrel. On the inner side of the groove 59 is an upstanding guard ring 61 extending nearly to the level of the shoulder 60 and having a re-entrantly curved lip 62 which extends over the inner portion of the groove 59 in the direction toward the shoulder 60, the ring 61 and lip 62 effectually preventing the escape of a bullet from the groove 59 after it has been deflected into the groove by the shoulder 60. The mouth of groove 59 is one-sixteenth inch smaller than the bullet to check its initial velocity and to assist in keeping it in the groove until the bullet reaches the cut-away portion 55.

The operation of my improved gun is as followsz The barrel 11 is driven at high speed from shaftt', which is driven in turn by any suitable motor. Bullets are placed in the hopper 14 from which they are fed by worm 17 through tube'15 to timing block 36 (Figs. 10 and 11). From timing block 11 bullets pass immediately to the revolving breech block 39, from which they are released to the barrel at the proper moment by cylindrical flange 41, the bullets being expelled from the barrel atv great velocity owing to its high speed of revolution.

It will be seen that bullets may be fed into the breech block 39 at the rate of one per revolution of the barrel or at a less rate of speed, depending upon the setting of the friction drive of the worm 17. In the latter case, the bullet will not, in general, strikethe face 53 of cam 45, but will strike at successive points around the inner periphery of member 41, the rate of feed not being commensurate to the rate of rotation. The striking points being thus spaced, the wear is not excessive, as is the case when the bullets all strike at the same spot.

\Vhile I have shown a particular embodiment of my invention and specifically described the same, I do not wish to be limited to the details of form and arrangement herein illustrated and described, except in so far as they are essential to the validity of the following claims:

Having thus described my invention, I claim-:

1. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a revolving impeller, a motor driven conveyor mechanism for delivering bullets to said impeller, means whereby the ratio of the speed of said impeller to the speed of said conveyor may be varied at will, and adjustable means for fixing the point in the revolution of said impeller at which a bullet enters the impeller.

2. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a revolving impeller, motor driven conveyor mechanism for delivering bullets to said im-- peller, a central breech block revolving with said impeller, said block having a. passage therethrough extending in a generally radial direction and leading to said impeller, a normally fixed adjustable cylindrical member controlling the movement of the bullet through said passage and for releasing the bullet to the impeller at the desired point in the revolution of the impeller and means whereby the ratio of speed of said impeller to the speed of said conveyor mechanism may be varied at will.

3. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a revolving impeller. a motor driven conveyor mechanism for delivering bullets to said impeller, and means whereby the ratio of the speed of said impeller to the speed of said conveyor may be varied at will.

4. A centrifugal gun comprising in combination a rotary barrel, a central breech block revolving with said barrel, said block having a passage therethrough extending in r a generally radial direction and leading to said barrel, said passage including connected oii'set inlet and outlet portions, a normally --xed cylindrical member for controlling the movement of a bullet through said passage and for releasing the bullet to the barrel at the desired point in the revolution of the barrel. said cylindrical member being continuous in the plane determined by the said outlet portion.

revolution of said inlet portion, the gun i said cylindricalmember, and a fixed cam for forcing a ball from said inlet portion into 5. A centrifugal. gun comprising in combination a rotary barrel, a central breech block revolving with said barrel, having a passage t-herethrough xtending in a generally radial direction and leading to said barrel, a single normally fixed cylindrical member controlling the movement of a bullet through said passage and for releasing the bullet to said barrel at the desired point in the revolution of the barrel, said passage having an inlet portion and an outlet portion lying in diiferent planes, and a cam fixed with relation to said cylindrical member for forcing a bullet from the inlet portion to the outlet portion of said passage.

6QA' centrifugal gun comprising in combination a rotary barrel, a central breech block revolvingwith said barrel, having a passage therethrough extending in a generally radial direction and leading to said barrel, and a single normally fixed cylindrical member for controlling the movement of a bulletthrough said passage and for re leasing the bullet to said barrel at the desired point in the revolution of the barrel, said passage having an inlet portion and an outlet portion lying in different planes, and a camfixed with relation to said cylindrical member for forcing a bullet from the inlet portion to the outlet port-ion of said passage, saidcylindrical member having an inwardly projecting shoulder near its free end and extending entirely around the member except in proximity to the radius passing through said cam.

7. Acentrifugal gun comprising in combination a rotary barrel, a central breech block revolving with said barrel, having a passage therethrough extendin erally radial direction and leading to said barrel, and a single normally fixed cylindrical member for controlling the movement of a bullet throughsaid passage and for releasing the bullet to said barrel at the de- 7 sired point in the revolution of the barrel,

said passage having an inlet portion and an outlet portion lying in different planes, and

' a cam fixed with relation to said cylindrical member for forcing a bullet from the inlet.

portion to the outlet portion of said passage, said cylindrical member having an inwardly projecting shoulder near its free end and extending entirely around the member except in proximity to the radius passing through said cam, said member having a beveled face on the inner corner of its free end, said beveled face beginning in the in a gen region of said cam and gradually increasin in width from its beginning to the pointof release for the bullet.

8. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a revolving barrel, a breech block revolving with said barrel and having a passage therethrough for delivering bullets to said barrel, and a cylindrical member for controlling the point at which bullets are delivered to said barrel, bullets in said passage lying against said member prior to their release thereby, the portion of said passage from which bullets are delivered to the barrel being inclined to the radius in a direction rearwardly from the direction of rotation.

9. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a rotary barrel, a. central breech block revolving with said barrel, said block having a passage therethrough extending in a gen erally radial direction and leading to said barrel, and a. normally fixed cylindrical timing member for releasing the bullet to the barrel at the desired point in the revolution of the barrel, said timing member being beveled along its lower inner edge and so related to said passage that a bullet contacts with said beveled portion above the center of the bullet. I

10. In acentrifugal gun in combination, a rotary impeller, a breech block mounted to rotate therewith and having apassage herethrough comprising inlet and outlet portions in different'planes but both extending in generally radial directions, a normally stationary cylindrical controlling the entrance of bullet into said impeller and forming a continuous closure for the outer end of said inlet-portion, and a cam for pressing a bullet from the outer end of said inlet portion to said outlet portion, said cam being tangent to the path of a bullet passing outwardly along said inlet portion.

11. In a centrifugal gun in'combination, a rotary impeller and a shield surrounding said impeller except 'on the side toward which itis desired to shoot, said shield hava groove therein opening at an angle to the plane of rotation of said impeller and having surfaces arranged to deflect a bullet delivered against it from said impeller into said groove.

12. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a rotary impellerand a shield surrounding said impeller except on the side toward whichiit is desired to shoot, said shield having a groove therein opening at an angle to the plane of rotation of said impellerrand having surfaces arranged to deflect a bullet deliveredagainst it from said impeller into the said groove and to prevent a bullet escaping from said groove. Y

13. In a centrifugal gun in combination". a rotary barrel and ashield surrounding said impeller except on the side toward which it member is desired to. shoot, said shield having a groove therein whose mouth lies in the plane of rotation of the muzzle of said barrel, the mouth of said groove being smaller than the diameter of the bullet.

14. In a centrifugal gun in combination, an impeller, and means for counting bullets passing to said impeller comprising a pivoted finger projecting into the path of the bullets, a register operated by said finger, and a star wheel for spacing the bullets passing through the counting mechanism.

15. In a centrifugal gun, a cylindrical member for determining the point of release of a bullet, said member having an opening at the point of escape for the bullet, the free edge of said member having a tapered portion on the side of said opening toward which the bullet moves when released.

16. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a revolving impeller, a normally stationary member for determining the point in the revolution at which a bullet is released to the impeller, said member having a beveled portion on its lower inner edge, and means whereby a bullet is constrained to contact with said beveled portion at a point above the center of the bullet.

17. In a centrifugal gun in combination, a rotary barrel, a central breech block revolving with said barrel, said block having a passage therethrough extending in a generally radial direction and leading to said barrel, said passage having an inlet portion and an outlet portion lying in different planes, a

normally fixed cylindrical timing member closing said breech block in the plane of said inlet portion and closing the outer end of said inlet portion, said inlet portion being unobstructed throughout its length in all portions of the revolution of the breech block, a cam for forcing a bulletfrom said inlet portion to said outlet portion, and means for feeding bullets into said inlet portion at a less rate than one per revolution of the barrel.

18. A centrifugal gun comprising in combination a rotary barrel, a central breech block revolving with said barrel, said block having a passage therethrough extending in a generally radial direction and leading to said barrel, said passage including connected ofl'set inlet and outlet portions, a single nor mally fixed cylindrical member for controlling the movement of a bullet through said passage and for releasing the bullet to the barrel at the desired point in the revolution of the barrel, said cylindrical member being continuous in the plane determined by the revolution of said inlet portion, the gun structure being devoid of obstructions to said inlet portion at all times whereby a ball in said inlet portion is always free to move into contact with the inner surface of said cylindrical member, and a fixed cam for forcing a ball from said inlet portion into said outlet portion, said cylindrical member having an interior shoulder thereon except at the portion adjacent the point of contact between a bullet in said inlet portion and said cam, the portion of said member along which the ball moves in passing from said inlet to said outlet portion under the influence of said cam being free from concavity.

VICTOR H. CZEGKA. 

